County jail officials say their only known recycling option is a program subsidized by a major candy manufacturer . FILE PHOTO: THE REGISTER

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Walking Dead fans can design their own zombie survival machine with a new iTunes app launched by Huntington Beach company INNOCEAN USA. The app debuted at Comic-Con International: San Diego 2013. Fans can choose any Hyundai and trick it out with the best anti-zombie features. PHOTO COURTESY INNOCEAN USA

The website “Before It's News,” often home to stories of the bizarre and unexplained, recently ran a story on a reported UFO sighting just off the Huntington Beach shore.

According to the site, the unidentified flying object was spotted at the end of July. The photos show a large black orb hovering near the pier, though comments on the article show that most readers aren't fooled.

“Look how close it is to the beach, yet there's no crowd observing?” said one commenter. “FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE.”

Scott C. Waring, who runs a UFO blog and reported the sighting, said in the article, “I take it the orb was caught by accident … otherwise people would have been looking at it.”

Doubts of such objects are likely warranted. Another paranormal news site, UFO Digest, reported that two Huntington Beach residents saw a UFO over the city in May, though the article doesn't name either witness.

– Annie Zak

2. This week in H.B. history

Here’s a look at what was happening in the news on this week in Huntington Beach last year and beyond:

1 year ago: City Council members approved an agreement with Crescent Heights so the Pacific City Project could move forward. The Boys & Girls Clubs of Huntington Valley announced it will open a new facility in Oak View.

5 years ago: County officials warned residents not to feed the birds at parks saying leaving bread crumbs causes botulism in ducks. The bacteria cause paralysis in the birds.

10 years ago: Then-gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger visited Main Street. A man jumped off the Huntington Beach pier in an attempt to save his red-bellied parrot, Squeaks, but the bird was killed in the ocean plunge.

15 years ago: City officials realized they had illegally been requiring deposits for nine years for residents and businesses that opened water accounts. Officials scrambled to rewrite the code and refund customers.

20 years ago: More than 200,000 visit Surf City for Pierfest to celebrate the first anniversary of the city’s $12 million pier that was rebuilt after the 1988 storm surge.

3. Calling all ‘Walking Dead’ enthusiasts

Should, or as some insist when, a zombie apocalypse descends on mankind, what kinds of anti-zombie weaponry would be best for survival?

The app, inspired by the comic book, allows fans to design their own Hyundai, tricked out with the most effective anti-zombie features, including battering rams to push through droves of the undead.

“Walking Dead” writer Robert Kirkman will choose one design to be built and unveiled at New York Comic-Con in October, company officials reported.

One exceptional design chosen by “Walking Dead” comic writer Robert Kirkman will be built and unveiled at New York Comic-Con in October, company officials reported. So far, more than 56,000 survival machines have been designed.

Forty-two students and five days of intensive training all leading to a performance they'd never forget. While it sounds like the makings of a TV show competition, it was actually the reality for dozens of local teens who took part in the first-ever Disney Performing Arts Conservatory at the Disneyland Resort.

Students ages 15-19 flew in from around the country and around the world to spend a week getting an inside look at the life of a Disney performer and the skills required to make that seemingly effortless magic come alive.

The students started at 8 a.m. working on a different aspect of performing each day. At the end of the week, they would take what they learned and display it during a show at the California Adventure Park for visitors.

Taylor Windle, a junior at Huntington Beach High School, said that what she learned most from the program was how to bring the magic into a performance, a lesson she hadn't learned elsewhere.

“Growing up, I was in show choir in middle school and we would come here to do performing arts workshops, and what I learned about the performing process through Disney was so magical, so internal and so real … , so that's why I wanted to come to Disney (for a full week),” Windle said.

Orange County's jail inmates eat a lot of candy – so much candy that a private school in Huntington Beach is slated to make up to $20,000 a year from recycling their wrappers.

To reduce the trash they send to the dump, sheriff's officials want to recycle roughly 1 million candy packages from Theo Lacy jail in Orange.

Officials searched for a way to recycle the wrappers, and they found TerraCycle, a New Jersey-based company that “upcycles” – or takes trash and makes new products. But the company has a yearlong waiting list to join, Bland said, and the only Orange County participant is Carden Conservatory, a non-religious private school in Huntington Beach.

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